The Greatest Story Ever Told
by Balin Lord of Moria
Summary: Matt Cordell would kill anyone, but would he kill a child? A little girl runs into Cordell, quite literally, and wonders if he's going to kill her, too. Contains Christian symbolism.


**A/N:** I am not necessarily suggesting that Matt Cordell is a Christ figure in this story, or in _Maniac Cop_, for that matter. But people don't usually use proper Christian symbolism in horror movies, especially not in contemporary times, and because I happen to like _Maniac Cop_ and am a Christian, I thought I could try to write a story in which a few of the traits of Officer Cordell mirror that of a Christian.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Maniac Cop_ or any of its characters, though I've wished that I could. This is just an interesting concept about Matt Cordell and the movies that I wanted to write about.

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_**The Greatest Story Ever Told**_

It was a dark night in downtown New York City. The crowds were mostly gone, and the lowlife citizens of the underground were crawling about doing their own furtive or dirty little deeds. A young child, a girl of about nine or ten years, had been wandering around for a while after losing sight of her friends.

She had been playing some outdoor games with them all day, like hopscotch, jacks, and ball games, and she had promised her parents that she would be home in time for supper. It had been pretty fun, all things considering. The girl, whose name was Josephine, or Josie for short, and was African-American, was not ignorant of the rumors of a strange inhuman man dressed like a policeman wandering about the city, killing people without any kind of pattern. No one, not even the real police, could stand up to him, and the body count was rising.

Josie had heard one of her friends, a girl named Cindy, gossip about how she heard that this crazed killer was a cop named Matt Cordell according to some people investigating the case, and that he was the ultimate nightmare for the people of New York to be going through. Josie also heard, however, that Cordell had been something of a hero to the people once, saving many lives by taking and apprehending many criminals. She sometimes wondered if it was true that this cold-blooded killer was in fact Matt Cordell, and what could have happened to him that broke his heart and spirit to the point that he would roam around randomly killing innocents.

Anyway, Josie had been walking for quite some time now. Apparently, she had taken a wrong turn home and was now lost. "Must be all the excitement we had today," she thought. "Must have made me dizzy or something." She was running out of ideas on how to get back on track and she was beginning to feel a little nervous. Some of those troublemaking strangers her parents always warned her never to approach or talk to could be in the area, and she didn't want them to hurt her.

Just then, suddenly, there was a scuffling sound not far behind her. She turned. A big twenty-or-so year old man was standing there half in the shadows. He was looking right at her. It filled Josie with fear to see this punk looking at her that way. It looked like he wanted to kidnap or, worse, molest her.

The young man said, "Hey, girlie, are you lost? Come on, it's all right. I can get you home in time to appease your parents. Come 'ere, I won't bite."

He stepped out into the light. It looked like he was fingering something in his jacket pocket. Josie's eyes widened in terror.

"Relax, girlie," he said in a slimy voice, "Let's go and have some fun and games."

Panicking, Josie made a run for it.

"Girlie! Where you goin'? I just wanna have some fun and then get you home in pieces-I mean one piece!" he shouted after her.

That was enough to convince her that this young man was a thug with very bad intentions, and she ran a little faster. He started to chase her. They ran through the back streets of the residential area of downtown. After a short while, the thug began to catch up with her.

"Leave me alone, mister!" she yelled. "I don't have anything you want!"

"I'll decide that when we start playing some wild games together, girlie!" he yelled back, never breaking stride.

The chase continued through more residential areas. A few bums and wandering folks were up and about in the area. "Help!" Josie shouted at them, "That man is chasing me! Help!"

But evidently, these people were very indifferent, or very afraid, because none of them made a move to stop the big punk.

"Mommy! Daddy!" Josie screamed. It started to rain heavily. The ground was soon covered with a thin layer of water, making it harder for Josie to run fast. The punk was close to catching up now.

All of a sudden, Josie rammed into something else big. She looked up, thinking it was a big tree at first, but suddenly found herself staring into the face of the biggest man she had ever seen.

He had ugly, partly open scars on his face, an implacable glowering expression on it, too, and he wore a full policeman's uniform, down to the cap, coat and white gloves. He didn't smell very good, but he felt astonishingly cold to the touch, too, as if he had been turned into a zombie.

With alarmed shock, she realized that this must be Matt Cordell, the so-called "maniac cop" who terrorized the city streets. Fearing for her life, she considered running the other way, but then she remembered the punk behind her, who, as she now noticed, had caught up, but was looking nervously at Cordell, not sure whether to go ahead with his kidnapping, watch with amusement as Cordell killed the girl and then run away, or just run away and leave it at that.

Having very little time to think, Josie acted on a child-like instinct. She looked up into the hideously scarred face of Matt Cordell again. He was looking down on her, too. The glower was still there, but curiously, it seemed that there was a slight softness in his usually hard-as-diamonds eyes, as if he had a soft spot for her. Strange. According to the press, Cordell had killed everyone who came to him for help. Josie wondered what was wrong, but somehow she sensed that this "maniac cop" didn't want to hurt her.

"Officer, sir," she asked nervously, "please get this maniac punk away from me? He's scaring me, and I think he wants to molest me!"

Cordell looked up at the stalling thug. His gray eyes went hard and sharp again. The punk finally started to sense that the maniac cop was thinking of killing him in a very painful and bloody way. But it was a moment or two too late. He turned around and started to run. Cordell pushed Josie aside with surprising gentleness, and swiftly strode after him. Cordell's black cop shoes didn't seem to be splashing much as he gave chase. It made Josie think he must be walking on water, like Jesus in the Bible.

The punk, who ran faster than Cordell, was making some distance, but before he could make a safe distance between them, Cordell pulled out his gun and, with crack marksmanship, shot the punk in the back of his right leg. The punk fell to the ground. Cordell caught up with him soon enough. In desperation, the punk flipped out a switchblade from his jacket pocket and tried to fight back. He stabbed Cordell in the left shin. Cordell made a sound similar to a grunt, but ignored the wound and raised his ceremonial sword. The thug tried to guard his chest area, thinking that was where the maniac cop would strike, but instead, Cordell swung down the blade, and decapitated him.

Josie was shocked to have borne witness to such violence, but she did not run away. Cordell pulled out the knife from his leg and threw it away. Then he wiped his sword off on the headless punk's shirt and sheathed it. Finally, after taking the guy's jacket from him, he slowly turned and, seeing Josie still standing where he had left her, he walked back, once again appearing to be walking on water.

Josie became very tense, afraid for a moment that she was next. But when Cordell stepped up beside her, instead of gutting her, he draped the dead punk's jacket around her shoulders and over her head like a makeshift hood. Amazed at the seeming kindness this "maniac cop" was showing her, she wanted to ask him something. "Tell me, officer, are you… Matt Cordell, the guy everybody in town is afraid of?"

Though it was a little dark where they stood, it looked like Cordell made a very slight and slow nod.

"Tell me, Matt, can I call you Matt? It feels more personal that way. I'm Josephine, but everybody calls me Josie. Tell me, why do you go around killing people? I mean, it isn't good to randomly murder people," said Josie.

There were a few seconds of silence, and then, in a low and very hoarse voice, Matt Cordell croaked out, "Madness. Madness, and justice."

"Really?" Josie said, "Something, or someone, drove you mad? And now you want them to answer for it? Is that it?"

Cordell slowly spoke again. Josie found this curious, too, because very few people ever reported Cordell ever speaking a word.

"Fools in police force… trumped me up, and… put me in prison, where I was killed by my own inmates I arrested. The government… couldn't deal with my style of policing… metering out hard justice to people who would hurt or kill other people," he said.

Josie nodded. "And now you somehow returned from the dead and are driven to kill at will because of the pain you endured?"

Cordell nodded, "Yes." At that moment, Josie thought she saw something no one would ever dream Matt Cordell was capable of: a small tear from one of his eyes.

"Oh, that's too bad," she said with sympathy, "Not just for your victims, but for you, too. But I want to know; why haven't you killed me? I thought you would kill just about anyone, even a kid like me."

Cordell hesitated again for a long moment. Then, "You are a child. Children are the easiest victims… of the evils of this… wicked society. Even child bullies can suffer worse from the crime of this country… than the arrogant adults that dominate… the authority in this world. Children… have the innocence and joy of life that so many adults lack… and are wept for more than most other murder and accident victims… that is why… I cannot bring myself… to kill a child like you."

Josie stood in awe at this unexpected wisdom from this man everyone called a mad dog killer. "Well, I don't believe _all_ adults are that bad, Matt," she replied, "and some kids can be the biggest bullies on the planet. But I'm so glad to hear that you wouldn't kill all the people you could possibly run into. You don't know how much that means to me."

"I do," Cordell said haltingly. "I cannot control my madness. My hatred for the criminal authorities that trumped me up and sent me to prison… has made my behavior irrational. It brings a certain thrill… to the killing. I always itch to end another life almost all the time."

"Well, you may not be a perfect cop," said Josie, "but _I_ believe in you, Matt. I believe in God and Jesus. My mom and dad always taught me to do so. And you may be, uh, undead, as some people call it, but since you're not entirely dead, I think redemption and a stop to this killing is possible even for you. You should think about it next time you're thinking about killing an innocent person."

Though he didn't cry again, Matt Cordell's glower left his face for a fleeting moment, and Josie could feel an understanding coming between them that nobody else could achieve with him.

"Can you take me home, Matt? In secret, of course. I got lost on the way home from games with my friends, and I don't want my parents to worry about me anymore tonight," she asked him.

Cordell nodded once more; evidently he must have seen her before, because he told her he knew where she lived, and that he could discreetly take her there, but she must not tell anyone that they met that night, or that Josie knew about the dead punk on the wet sidewalk who had chased her.

"I agree," said Josie, "As much as I'd like to tell people about the misunderstanding concerning you, I don't think it would do either of us any good in the long run."

And then, as he resumed his silent, zombie-like state of mind, Matt Cordell took Josephine home, being careful not to walk near the windows. He watched briefly as her parents welcomed her home with relief and demanded to know why she was so late, and then he resumed his beat on the street as the deadly and infamous "Maniac Cop."

But on occasion, he remembered what Josie said, and wondered if there _was_ any way he and his reputation could be redeemed.

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_So Jesus called the children over to him and said, "Let the children come to me! Don't try to stop them. People who are like these children belong to God's kingdom. You will never get into God's kingdom unless you enter it like a child."_ – Luke 18:16-17


End file.
